Where has this podcast been? Why didn’t I find it sooner? Going through Parable of the Sower for the third time just to be able to read along.

I like the discussion of the book and the questions the hosts pose related to the subject matter. Throughout though the hosts make some incorrect statements regarding our current society. An example is the myth that we already have enough housing and building more apartment buildings are not necessary. Gentrification caused by not enough housing. We are in the midst of a historic housing crisis and need construction of more homes, especially multi family homes from duplexes to tall apartment buildings. We need both market rates and subsidized housing. Numerous studies show that market rate housing brings rents down. Add the affordable and social housing to that and rents might stabilize. Combine with rent control and things might become better for renters. Arguing against more apartment buildings is just going to make the world Butler writes about come about faster.

I love this podcast! I just finished with the Parables episodes and now I have to read the other books to catch up. This is required listening for our day and age!

Brilliant.

Used to love this show, but the loss of the cohost Michael Hobbs was a blow.

Reading Wildseed along with this podcast is like eating chocolate cake with icecream!! I am in love. Thank you for what you do.

This podcast is amazing. I see, hear, and feel the spiral of wisdom moving from Octavia through Toshi, adrienne, those who make the podcast possible, and those who have grown crops from the seeds that Octavia E. Butler offered. After every episode I feel gratitude and more skilled at navigating this world justly. The music is absolutely beautiful. Thank you!

this podcast is a gift. like three angels holding your hand as you walk through the apocalypse.. wrapping you in love and teaching you how to look it in the face. to feel all of it.. and continue onward with visions, possibility, and dreams. thank you Toshi, Adrienne, and Octavia. so grateful for the wisdom you share..

Thank you for bringing this series to life! This podcast is a deep dive into a book about strength, perseverance, and survival, while the main characters are trying to grow and maintain their humanity during the apolcalyse. I mean this is in best way possible… this podcast must be what bible study and discussion groups must be like for devout Christians. Adrienne and Toshi are the coolest, most down to earth, hosts! Their analyses and invitations to explore the topics for ourselves have invited some deep introspection. I hadn’t explored any of their work until this podcast, but I’ve fallen deeply in love with what I know about them now, and look forward to learning more.

Chapter by chapter review of the books along with social commentary and suggstions for how people can understand teh lessons from the books and apply them to their lives

This is the podcast of my dreams, literally. It’s a course in the socially relevant points of one of my favorite authors that is ALSO practically useful for my own transformative justice practice.

Using a novel as a frame for political discussion is a good setup. Hope they or others cover other works by Butler in the future! Butler needs to be taught more in schools.

I am so deeply grateful for this podcast. I’ve been catching up in the podcast to where I am reading. The reflections of Toshi and Adrienne have been incredible ways to stretch my thinking and learning, finding empathy for unsavory characters and considering how Butler’s writing can help me reclaim my humanity in our present distress

I’m deeply grateful to have found Octavia with this guidance. Yoshi was already a powerful presence at 16 when Sweet Honey introduced her at Michigan Womyns Music Fest. Ca me across this podcast to see what Toshi up to now. 1 episode and I immediately read Parables. Allergic to violence and science fiction. But Octavia was describing actual current reality so I took the wounds because Lauren’s empathy took mine right to the cross. So I had to bear the dystopia and get some skills. Thank you for the music!

This podcast is such a gift! I’m in Northern California surviving wildfires, reading the Parables, listening to this Podcast, teaching throughout a pandemic, thinking deeply about the teachings of EARTHSEED, and planting my garden. Also, it was deeply moving to hear the commentary about folks experiencing wildfires in CA and the need for teachers to hold space for student’s to grieve in Ch. 13.

I look forward to each chapter and learn so much from their review and reflections of the Parables. Their conversation is genuine, thoughtful, and nurturing to the listener. The music is phenomenal.

Blessed be. Thank you for this gift. This is pure soul. Octavia and Earthseed live on and on. As someone who still had not read the Parable books, this is the best way to enter. When I read it soon listening again to this it will be even more rich. Thank you.

This is a really great read through of Octavia Butler. Even though the topics covered might sometimes be heavy, there is a real joy and wonder that the hosts bring.

One episode in and I’m sold! I’ve reread Parable of the Sower so many times...it’s the one book I come back to again and again...so I’m thrilled to listen to this discussion. I only wish I had learned of it from the beginning when I was drowning my election anxieties in my umpteenth reread!

Thank you for the thoughtful discussion. Looking forward to catching up!

After finishing Parable of the Sower and Kindred, I recommended Octavia Butler’s books to so many people, but I couldn’t find anyone who had read them to discuss with. I’m so excited to dive into the discussions and get previews to her other books.

This show is helping me build my pleasure practice of reading after completing an intense doctorate journey. The podcast is right on time and feels so spiritual, healthy, and cutting edge - what I need right now. I also love black women being tender and loving to each other - and that sentiment is demonstrated in the discussions in the podcast. Thank you!

I love this podcast so much. These women are helping to create new ideas and language as we heave ourselves forward into a future that I want to be a part of. I am new to Parable of the Sower and enjoying the questions, current topics and emotional considerations of ourselves as humans in time and place. The book is a powerful way to look at where we are now. Thank you so much for the brain food

The podcast is soooo great! It’s helpful, and important, and challenging, and interesting, and beautiful

This book literally changed my life, and the podcast was a huge part of that. Toshi and adrienne are brilliant.

It’s been a long time coming. Just started. Prophecy...wow!

Thx Toshi and Adrienne! Loved listening to your recaps, questions, songs, and thoughts on each episode! Can’t wait to hear the Talents with you.

Even if you’ve never read Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (if so, start reading right away), this podcast makes the meanings and the uncanny resonances of the book open to everyone.

Listening to adrienne and Toshi talk, ask questions, and reflect on each chapter of Parable of the Sower is a joy each week. Huge bonus to hear the music from the Parable of the Sower Opera!

Thank you thank you adrienne and Toshi! I purchased new copies for a reread as a birthday present to myself last month because I wanted to move through these books with you. It has been such a blessing, and a sun around which to orbit my mind in this tumultuous moment. Wisdom and beauty and vision.

I have found this podcast (along with Octavia Butler’s work) to be the most important learning opportunity in these days and the most transformative for my future. Thank you Toshi and Adrienne for this gift.

Truly incredible love Toshi and amb’s scholarship

I am so happy that Toshi and adrienne are doing this show. These are really rich conversations about books I already love. Toshi’s music is profound and beautiful.

This podcasts feels like I am sitting in the living room with my fam. Love them! They are pulling out such wisdoms from the book that I had NEVER thought of. LOVE you! Thanks for your time adrienne and Toshi! Your music is beautiful. Love it

Just love everything that y’all produce. This podcast makes me think, feel, and imagine- what else could I hope for? Thank you!

We are 3 long-time friends, Ann, Barb, and Anna. First we read Emergent Strategy together, then followed adrienne’s advice to read Octavia Butler. The book and complementary podcast is so rich, we really look forward to meeting every Wednesday. We’re amazed at how much depth we can get to, that we missed when just reading the chapter w/out adrienne and Toshi! We’re elders, and have been activists together for 40 years, but now in different parts of the country. Ann in Oberlin, Barb in Brattleboro, and me still in Lansing, where we all met 45 years ago. LOVE this podcast, so grateful!! and what a great feast over which to connect with friends! The music, we LOVE the music!!

I’m so incredibly grateful for this podcast. Hearing their thoughts and discussions on this work in such a thorough way is truly a gift to our time and my life, providing much needed guidance on how to be a positive force in the world. I learn so much with each episode and always need to re-listen in order to absorb the amount of wisdom expressed.

Beyond grateful for this fantastic podcast, read along and bring your reading into deep study with these masters. Thank you so much for your work i listen to every episode <3

Thank you all for this amazing show and offering. It is fuel for shaping change.

An amazing show to soak in and allow to wash over you. I’m learning so much simply through allowing the discussion, music, quotes and incredible voices wash over me. Like a warm, deep soak.

Balanced mix of realism, dreaming, imagining and analysis, bringing us lessons and reality checks and hope and comfort. What i turn to right now to help myself exhale, plan without frantic spiralIng, allow my shoulders to drop and my brain to be active but in a reflective and calmer way. Thank you. I need this. I remember Octavia’s lessons with this. I chop vegetables and shower and take my daily walks and cry and sing to this. Appreciate yall.

The hosts of this podcast perfectly adapt the events and themes of Ms. Butler’s novel to the events that happening currently. The questions they ask are thought-provoking and could not be more relevant and necessary to ask in these times.

Toshi and Adrienne’s work and this podcast really helps delve deep into each of the chapters of the Parable of the Sower and even though the Parable is already so relevant the podcast makes it even more relevant to me as a person listening, going from societal connections to individual connections so I really appreciate the work!

Loving this podcast so much. Very grateful for adrienne and Toshi’s wisdom. The questions are so alive, pulsing with a kind of energy that draws you into yourself and then into the earth.

Thank you thank you thank you. Your two voices are a dream. I am healed by your conversation and questions. Thank you.

Such deep, profound discussion. You both have inspired me in so many ways.

Love this podcast. I had started reading Emergent Strategy and there were so many references to Octavia Butler’s work that I got the Parable I’d the Sower to try to more deeply understand brown’s key ideas. Now I have her and the gorgeous voice of Toshi Regan guiding my reading and I feel like it’s an oasis of beauty during this really difficult time we are all living through. Thank you ladies for doing this incredible work!

I have been wanting to read the parables and this podcast has helped me to read through along with the episodes. It’s such a powerful book and I feel like I’m in a mini course with the clear guidance of these wonderful hosts. I love their insight and ability to bring the material into the present experience as well as the more universal themes.

Parable of the Sower literally changed my life. I’m glad this cast exists to bring Octavia Butler’s works to a larger audience.

Toshi & adrienne guide us on a glorious immersion into Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower & Parable of the Talents. The inspiration gleaned and the questions offered each week/chapter feel like nourishment for our bone marrow. I’m loving going deeper with these books of vision, wisdom and truth. The music is fantastic too! Mimi Maduro Mosier, Oregon